Processor Including Multiple Dissimilar Processor Cores that Implement Different Portions of Instruction Set Architecture

ABSTRACT

In an embodiment, an integrated circuit may include one or more processors. Each processor may include multiple processor cores, and each core has a different design/implementation and performance level. For example, a core may be implemented for high performance, and another core may be implemented at a lower maximum performance, but may be optimized for efficiency. Additionally, in some embodiments, some features of the instruction set architecture implemented by the processor may be implemented in only one of the cores that make up the processor. If such a feature is invoked by a code sequence while a different core is active, the processor may swap cores to the core the implements the feature. Alternatively, an exception may be taken and an exception handler may be executed to identify the feature and activate the corresponding core.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

Embodiments described herein are related to processors and, moreparticularly, to multiple processor cores forming a processor.

2. Description of the Related Art

Various processors are included in electronic systems to executesoftware providing some amount of user functionality. The processors mayinclude the central processing units (CPUs) in the system, as well asspecial purpose processors dedicated to specific tasks such as graphics,media processing, etc. Generally, the processors are designed to operateat multiple operating points (settings of supply voltage magnitude andclock frequency). Lower operating points consume less power but alsooffer limited performance compared to higher operating points. For someworkloads, the limited performance is sufficient and the lower operatingpoints can be used. For other workloads, the higher operating points areneeded to provide sufficient performance.

In some systems, a wide diversity of workloads are experienced.Designing a processor that can provide the performance needed by themost demanding workloads while also supporting the lowest possibleoperating point that would provide sufficient performance for manyfrequently-executed workloads has become a challenge. Processors thatoperate at high operating points may only support a reduction in supplyvoltage to a certain level before circuitry ceases to functioncorrectly. Compromises must be made, and typically the lowest operatingpoint is increased until the design can meet the desired high endoperating point. As the high end operating points continue to increase,more and more workloads are executable at the lowest operating point(and many could be executed at even lower operating points). Power isexpended unnecessarily for such workloads, which can be a criticalfactor in mobile systems that frequently operate on a limited energysource such as a battery.

SUMMARY

In an embodiment, an integrated circuit may include one or moreprocessors. Each processor may include multiple processor cores, andeach core has a different design/implementation and performance level.For example, a core may be implemented for high performance, but mayhave higher minimum voltage at which it operates correctly. Another coremay be implemented at a lower maximum performance, but may be optimizedfor efficiency and may operate correctly at a lower minimum voltage.Additionally, in some embodiments, some features of the instruction setarchitecture employed by the processor may be implemented in only one ofthe cores that make up the processor (or may be implemented by a subsetof the cores that excludes at least one core). If such a feature isinvoked by a code sequence while a different core is active, theprocessor may swap cores to one of the cores the implements the feature.Alternatively, an exception may be taken and an exception handler may beexecuted to identify the feature and activate the corresponding core.

In some embodiments, limiting certain features to one core or, at least,to less than all the cores may provide an area efficient implementationby eliminating duplicative circuitry in the cores to process the sameinstruction types. Features that will only likely be used in highperformance code, for example, may be implemented only in the highperformance core since that core is the most likely to execute the highperformance code. Features which are unlikely to be used (e.g. featuresprovided for backwards compatibility but which are not used by newercode) may be implemented in one core and thus may be supportedefficiently from an area standpoint.

The processor may support multiple processor states (PStates). EachPState may specify an operating point (e.g. a combination of supplyvoltage magnitude and clock frequency), and each PState may be mapped toone of the processor cores. During operation, one of the cores isactive: the core to which the current PState is mapped. If a new PStateis selected and is mapped to a different core, the processor mayautomatically context switch the processor state to the newly-selectedcore and may begin execution on that core. In an embodiment, theprocessor may detect whether or not the newly-selected core supports thefeatures in use by the current workload and may take corrective actionif not supported.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following detailed description makes reference to the accompanyingdrawings, which are now briefly described.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a processor cluster.

FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating efficiency versus performance for a PCoreand an ECore as illustrated in FIG. 1 for one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating operation of one embodiment of aprocessor power management unit to change processor states.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating operation of one embodiment of theprocessor power management unit to swap cores.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating operation on one embodiment of anactive core during execution of instructions.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating operation on another embodiment of anactive core during execution of instructions.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a computer accessible storage medium.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of one embodiment of context switchinghardware for a core swap.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system on a chip (SOC)including one embodiment of the processor cluster shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system.

While embodiments described in this disclosure may be susceptible tovarious modifications and alternative forms, specific embodimentsthereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein bedescribed in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawingsand detailed description thereto are not intended to limit theembodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, theintention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternativesfalling within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. The headingsused herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to beused to limit the scope of the description. As used throughout thisapplication, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaninghaving the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaningmust). Similarly, the words “include”, “including”, and “includes” meanincluding, but not limited to.

Various units, circuits, or other components may be described as“configured to” perform a task or tasks. In such contexts, “configuredto” is a broad recitation of structure generally meaning “havingcircuitry that” performs the task or tasks during operation. As such,the unit/circuit/component can be configured to perform the task evenwhen the unit/circuit/component is not currently on. In general, thecircuitry that forms the structure corresponding to “configured to” mayinclude hardware circuits and/or memory storing program instructionsexecutable to implement the operation. The memory can include volatilememory such as static or dynamic random access memory and/or nonvolatilememory such as optical or magnetic disk storage, flash memory,programmable read-only memories, etc. Similarly, variousunits/circuits/components may be described as performing a task ortasks, for convenience in the description. Such descriptions should beinterpreted as including the phrase “configured to.” Reciting aunit/circuit/component that is configured to perform one or more tasksis expressly intended not to invoke 35 U.S.C. §112(f) interpretation forthat unit/circuit/component.

This specification includes references to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment.” The appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “inan embodiment” do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, althoughembodiments that include any combination of the features are generallycontemplated, unless expressly disclaimed herein. Particular features,structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable mannerconsistent with this disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a processor cluster 30.In the illustrated embodiment, multiple processors 32A-32 n and a level2 (L2) cache 34 are included. The processors 32A-32 n are coupled to theL2 cache 34, which is further coupled to communicate with other elementsof a system that includes the cluster 30. In the illustrated embodiment,the L2 cache 34 includes a processor power manager 36 that includes aPState register 38 storing a PState for the processors 32A-32 n. Eachprocessor 32A-32 n may have its own independent PState, groups ofprocessors 32A-32 n may share a PState, or the cluster 30 may have ashared PState for the processors 32A-32 n, in various embodiments.Processor 32A is shown in more detail in FIG. 1 to include at least twoprocessor cores, a performance core (PCore) 40 and an efficient core(ECore) 42. Other embodiments may include additional cores. Each core 40and 42 is coupled to a power supply rail (V_(P)) through respectivepower switches 44 and 46. Thus, each core 40 and 42 may be independentlypowered up or down. Other processors, such as the processor 32 n, may besimilar to the processor 32A.

Each processor 32A-32 n may be an entity to which software executing inthe system may assign code to execute. For example, the software may bepart of an operating system (OS) that controls the hardware in thesystem. The software may be a thread or task scheduler which schedulescode to be executed. The OS may also assign a PState to the processors32A-32 n, based on the performance demands of the code being executed.The OS may track the behavior of the code to determine PStates, maystatically record information for each thread/task to select a PState,etc., or any combination thereof. In addition or alternatively, thePState may be affected by other conditions in the system (thermallimits, battery power available, etc.).

The PCore 40 and the ECore 42 may be different designs, differentimplementations of an instruction set architecture (ISA) employed by theprocessors 32A-32 n. Viewed in another way, the PCore 40 and the ECore42 may implement different microarchitectures. The PCore 40 may be anaggressive design that attempts to maximize performance with powerconservation as a less-emphasized design goal. The circuitry in thePCore 40 may be aggressive, which may prevent the minimum supply voltageat which the PCore 40 may operate from being as low as may be desired insome of the PStates. On the other hand, the ECore 42 may implement amore conservative design, and thus may operate correctly at lowerminimum voltages than the PCore 40. The performance of the ECore 42 maybe lower than the PCore 40 at a given operating point, and powerconservation may be a more highly-emphasized goal for the ECore 42. Thesemiconductor area occupied by the ECore 42 may be less than that of thePCore 40 as well.

More particularly, in an embodiment, the ECore 42 and/or the PCore 40may implement a subset of the ISA employed by the processors 32A-32 n,where one or more features of the ISA are not included in the subset. Inan embodiment, the PCore 40 may implement an entirety of the ISA and theECore 42 may implement a subset. In another embodiment, the PCore 40 andthe ECore 42 may each implement a different subset. The subsets maypartially overlap (e.g. commonly used instructions, such as the integerinstructions, may be part of each subset).

Various embodiments may select the features that are excluded from aparticular subset in a variety of ways. For the ECore 42, a feature thatis both infrequently used and expensive to implement (e.g. in terms ofsemiconductor substrate area occupied, power consumption, etc.) may beexcluded. For example, in an embodiment, the ISA may define multipleoperand sizes of a given operand type. In an embodiment, the operandtype may be integer and the sizes may include 32-bit and 64-bit. Moderncode appears to be trending toward 64-bit integer code. On the otherhand, the hardware to support both 64-bit and 32-bit integer operandsizes may be area-consuming and may pressure timing, which may result ina higher power implementation. Accordingly, the ECore 42 may implement64-bit integer hardware and may exclude support for 32-bit integer code.Other ISA features may similarly be excluded. For example, ISAs ofteninclude vector instruction sets that perform single-instruction,multiple data (SIMD) processing on a vector of operands. The vectorimplementations may be high power and/or area-consuming. A more recentISA introduction is the predicated vector instruction set to facilitateloop vectorization. Such a feature may also be eliminated from the ECore42. In general, an ISA feature may include an instruction, a set ofinstructions, an operand type or size, a mode, etc.

Each possible PState may specify an operating point for a processor32A-32 n. For example, the operating point may include a supply voltagemagnitude for V_(P) and a clock frequency for the clocks in theprocessor 32A-32 n. Other embodiments may define the operating point inother fashions, but generally the operating point may indicate theperformance and power consumption of the processor. In an embodiment,the PState may be a pair of values that are directly used as the supplyvoltage magnitude and the clock frequency. In other embodiments, thePState may be a value that is used to obtain the supply voltagemagnitude and the clock frequency (e.g. an index into a table ofvalues).

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the processor 32A includes the PCore 40 andthe ECore 42. Each PState that is supported by the processor 32A ismapped to one of the cores 40 and 42. Each core 40 and 42 may have morethan one PState mapped to it.

As the code being executed by a processor 32A-32 n changes and/or othersystem considerations warrant a change in the PState, the PStateregister 38 may be updated (e.g. by the OS). If the PState is changedfrom a current PState that is mapped to one of the cores 40 and 42 (the“active core”) to a new PState that is mapped to another one of thecores 40 and 42 (the “target core”), the cluster 30 may automatically,in hardware, transfer the processor context of the processor 32A fromthe active core to the target core. The target core may be powered offat the time the PState is changed. The process of transferring thecontext may include powering on the target core, resetting andinitializing the target core, transferring the processor context, andpowering off the active core (making the target core the active core).Execution may continue on the target core (now active core).Accordingly, switching between cores may be invisible to software. Infact, software may not even be “aware” that there are multiple cores inthe processor 32A-32 n.

While the example illustrated in FIG. 1 includes two cores in theprocessor 32A, other embodiments may include more than two cores. Onecore may be the most efficient core operating at the lowest PStates, andother cores may be optimized for other points along theperformance/efficiency spectrum until yet another core is the highestperformance core of the multiple cores in the processor. Any number ofcores may be used in various embodiments.

Generally, a processor may be any circuitry configured to implement adefined instruction set architecture (ISA). Various ISAs exist and maybe used in various embodiments, such as the x86 architecture (also knownas APX), the ARM architecture, the MIPS architecture, PowerPC (nowsimply Power), etc. A variety of microarchitectural techniques may beemployed by the processor, including the multiple core approachdescribed above. Each core may implement various microarchitecturaltechniques as well. Generally, the microarchitecture may refer to theorganization of execution units and other circuitry that is used toimplement the ISA. Examples may include in-order versus out-of-orderexecution, speculative execution, branch prediction, superscalar,superpipelined, etc. Embodiments may implement microcoding techniques inaddition to various other techniques.

The processors 32A-32 n and/or the processor complex 30 may be used asany processors in a system. For example, the processors may be centralprocessing units (CPU) that execute the OS to control other hardware inthe system and schedule application code to be executed. The CPU mayexecute the application code as well, etc. The processors may be specialpurpose processors such as graphics processing units (GPU) optimized forgraphics manipulations, digital signal processors (DSPs) optimized forsignal processing, embedded processors performing software execution invarious peripheral components, etc.

In an embodiment, at most one of the cores 40 and 42 forming a processor32A-32 n may be powered on during execution, except for times when theprocessor context is being transferred. A given processor 32A-32 n maybe completely off (all cores powered down). The processor power manager36 may be configured to control the powering on/up of the processorcores and powering off/down of the processor cores using the powerswitches 44 and 46.

In some embodiments, the cores 40 and/or 42 may implement data cachesthat may store modified data (i.e. data that has been written in thecache, e.g. responsive to stores in the processor code being executed,but that has not been written to memory yet such that the data in memoryis no longer the correct data). In addition to transferring processorcontext, the modified data may be flushed from the data cache.Particularly, the data may be flushed to the L2 cache 34, but may remainstored in the L2 cache 34 unless normal operation of the L2 cache 34causes the data to be evicted. Once the newly-active core is executing,modified data may be a hit in the L2 cache 34 and may be moved into thenewly-active core's cache with relatively low latency.

The processor power manager 36 may be configured to manage PStatetransitions within the processor cluster 30. The processor power manager36 may be configured to communicate supply voltage magnitude transitionsto a system level power manager or directly to a power management unit(PMU) that supplies the voltages to the system. The processor powermanager 36 may be configured to interact with the clock generationhardware (not shown in FIG. 1) such as a phase lock loop (PLL) or thelike.

The processor context may generally include any software-visibleprocessor state. The state may typically be stored in registersaccessible as operands of various instructions defined in the ISA. Thestate may include architected registers such as the operand registers ofvarious types (integer, floating point, vector, etc.). The registers mayalso include processor control registers such as status registers,processor mode registers, etc. The registers may also include specialpurpose registers defined to include specific content for a specificunit. The registers may further include model specific registers, whoseexistence may be architecturally specified but whose contents may varyfrom implementation to implementation.

The L2 cache 34 may have any capacity and configuration. The L2 cache 34may be inclusive of caches in the processors 32A-32 n, exclusive of thecaches, or non-inclusive.

FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating efficiency versus performance for oneembodiment of the cores 40 and 42. The dotted curve corresponds to theECore 42 and the solid line corresponds to the PCore 40. Efficiency isgraphed on the vertical axis and performance on the horizontal axis.Efficiency may be measured in a variety of ways (e.g. performance/watt).Performance may be measured using various benchmark programs such asSpecint, SpecFlt, Dhrystone, etc. Various PStates for the processor 32Aare illustrated along the curves in FIG. 2. PStates that correspondingto higher performance are on the PCore curve, since the PCore isoptimized for performance, wherein the PStates corresponding to lowerperformance/higher energy conservation are on the ECore curve, which ismore efficient at lower performance levels but less performant at higherperformance levels.

Accordingly, in the example of FIG. 2, the PStates 1, 2, and 3 aremapped to the ECore 42 and the PStates 4, 5, 6, and 7 are mapped to thePCore 40. Any number of PStates may be supported and any number may bemapped to various cores. In another embodiment, continuous PStatesettings may be supported. In such an embodiment, a break over pointwhere the curves intersect in FIG. 2 may be defined at which a coreswitch may occur.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of operation of theprocessor power manager 36 in response to a new PState written to thePState register 38. While the blocks are shown in a particular order forease of understanding, other orders may be used. Blocks may be performedin parallel in combinatorial logic in the processor power manager 36.Blocks, combinations of blocks, and/or the flowchart as a whole may bepipelined over multiple clock cycles. The processor power state manager36 may be configured to implement the operation shown in FIG. 3.

The active core may be the core 40/42 which is currently executing code.In some embodiments, the active core may be the only core that ispowered on during steady state operation at the current PState. If thenew PState is not mapped to the active core (decision block 50, “no”leg), the processor power state manager 36 may consider any informationregarding the workload and the target core to determine if the targetcore supports the workload (decision block 64). For example, some codemay include descriptors when stored in non-volatile memory such as aFlash memory, and the descriptors may indicate which ISA features areused by the code. The processor power state manager 36 may determine thefeatures used by the code from the descriptors. Alternatively, theprocessors 32A-32 n may track ISA features that are implemented by fewerthan all the cores. The tracked state may be used to determine if thetarget core supports the features that are currently in use.

If the code being executed uses features that are not implemented on thetarget core (decision block 64, “no” leg), the processor power statemanager 36 may not perform the state change. In an embodiment, theprocessor power state manager 36 may record the lack of state change ina register or other software-readable location so that software maydetermine that the state change did not occur. Other indications may beused as well (e.g. an interrupt or other signalling mechanism) when thestate change is not performed. In some embodiments, the attempt toprevent state change may not be performed and decision block 64 may beomitted. Instead, unsupported features may be detected while the code isexecuted on the target core. If the code being executed uses onlyfeatures that are implemented on the target core (decision block 64,“yes” leg), the processor power state manager 36 may perform a “coreswap” to the core to which the new PState is mapped (block 52).

If the new PState is mapped to the active core (decision block 50, “yes”leg), the active core may remain active and execution may continue whilethe PState is changed. If the new PState is an increase from the currentPState (decision block 54, “yes” leg), the supply voltage magnitude maybe increased first to support the increased frequency. Thus, theprocessor power state manager 36 may request the voltage increase (block56) and wait for the voltage increase to complete (decision block 58,“yes” leg). The processor power state manager 36 may determine thatvoltage increase is complete by waiting for a specified period of time,or may receive a communication that indicates when the voltage increaseis complete. In an embodiment, the processor power state manager 36 maytransmit the voltage increase request to another power manager (e.g. anSOC level power manager shown in FIG. 9, in one embodiment) or maytransmit the voltage request directly to a PMU that supplies thevoltage. Once the voltage increase is complete, the processor powermanager 36 may increase the frequency of the clock (block 60). On theother hand, if the new PState is a decrease from the current PState, thecurrent supply voltage may support the new (lower) frequency. Thus(decision block 54, “no” leg), the processor power manager 36 may updatethe clock frequency and request the new supply voltage without waitingfor the voltage change to complete (block 62).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of operation of theprocessor power manager 36 to perform a core swap (block 52 from FIG.3). While the blocks are shown in a particular order for ease ofunderstanding, other orders may be used. Blocks may be performed inparallel in combinatorial logic in the processor power manager 36.Blocks, combinations of blocks, and/or the flowchart as a whole may bepipelined over multiple clock cycles. The processor power state manager36 may be configured to implement the operation shown in FIG. 4.

The processor power manager 36 may transition the active core to a“safe” PState (block 70). The safe PState may be a state at which boththe active core and the target core operate correctly. In this context,the target core may be the core to which the new PState is mapped. Inembodiments in which there are more than two cores, the safe PState maybe different depending on which cores are the active and target cores.The safe PState need not be a PState that is selectable in the PStateregister 36. That is, the combination of supply voltage and frequencymay not be one of the supported combinations that are mapped to thecores. For example, the PCore may be capable of running at a higherfrequency given the supply voltage magnitude in the safe PState.However, the ECore may not be capable of running at the higher frequencywith the given supply voltage magnitude. Thus, a safe PState couldinclude the current supply voltage magnitude but a lower clockfrequency. Alternatively, the target core may not support the currentsupply voltage, and the safe PState may include different supply voltagemagnitude and clock frequency. Transitioning to the safe PState may besimilar to blocks 54, 56, 58, 60, and 62 in FIG. 3.

In some embodiments, the operation of FIGS. 3 and 4 may be implementedin hardware circuitry. In other embodiments, the operation may beimplemented in a combination of hardware and software stored on acomputer accessible storage medium and executed by the processors 32A-32n, or completely in software.

The processor power manager 36 may power up the target core (block 72).For example, in the embodiment of FIG. 1, the processor power manager 36may close the power switches to the target core, allowing power to flowto the target core. The target core may be reset after power hasstabilized. In some embodiments, the target core may initialize afterreset is complete. Once reset (and initialization, if applicable) iscomplete (decision block 74, “yes” leg), the processor power manager 36may initiate a transfer of the processor context from the active core tothe target core (block 76). In an embodiment, the cores may includecircuitry configured to transmit/receive the processor context. Inanother embodiment, the circuitry may be in the processor power manager36. As mentioned previously, the cores may also be configured to flushthe caches during the context transfer. Once the context transfer iscomplete (decision block 78, “yes” leg), the processor power manager maypower down the (previously) active core and the target core may becomethe active core (block 80). The powering down may be accomplished, e.g.by opening the power switches to the previously active core. Theprocessor power manager 36 may transition the active core to the newPState (block 82). Transitioning to the new PState may be similar toblocks 54, 56, 58, 60, and 62 in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of operation of agiven processor 32A-32 n (and more particularly the active core 40/42)during code execution. While the blocks are shown in a particular orderfor ease of understanding, other orders may be used. Blocks may beperformed in parallel in combinatorial logic within the processor 32A-32n. Blocks, combinations of blocks, and/or the flowchart as a whole maybe pipelined over multiple clock cycles.

Each instruction in the code may be an ISA feature and/or may make useof one or more ISA features. If the ISA features used for a giveninstruction are implemented by the active core (decision block 100,“yes” leg), the instruction may be processed normally (block 102). Onthe other hand, if at least one feature is not implemented by the activecore (decision block 100, “no” leg) but another core does implement thefeature (decision block 104, “yes” leg), a core swap may be performed tothe core that does implement the features (block 52). If none of thecores implement the feature (decision blocks 100 and 104, “no” legs), a“not implemented” exception may be taken so that software may handle theerror (block 106).

Generally, the operation illustrated in FIG. 5 (and FIG. 6 discussedbelow) may be performed for each instruction as it is processed throughthe processor pipeline. Various features may be detected at differentstates. Thus, the flowcharts of FIGS. 5 and 6 may be implemented by theprocessors 32A-32 n in parallel for each instruction in the codesequence being executed.

FIG. 6 is another embodiment of operation of a given processor 32A-32 n(and more particularly the active core 40/42) during code execution.Similar to the embodiment of FIG. 5, the embodiment of FIG. 6 maydetermine whether or not the active core implements the ISA featuresused by the code (decision block 100), process the code normally if so(block 102), determine whether or not another core implements thefeature (decision block 104), and take the not implemented exception ifnot implemented on any core (block 106). However, in this embodiment, ifanother core does implement the features (decision block 104), a coreswap exception may be taken (block 108). The core swap exception may bedifferent from the not implemented exception and other exceptionsimplemented by the cores 40/42. The core swap exception may cause theprocessor to execute a core swap exception handler, which may performthe core swap 52 mentioned previously. Similarly, the core swapexception handler may be used at other times that the core swap 52 isperformed in some embodiments.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a computer accessiblestorage medium 200. Generally speaking, a computer accessible storagemedium may include any storage media accessible by a computer during useto provide instructions and/or data to the computer. For example, acomputer accessible storage medium may include storage media such asmagnetic or optical media, e.g., disk (fixed or removable), tape,CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, or Blu-Ray. Storage mediamay further include volatile or non-volatile memory media such as RAM(e.g. synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), Rambus DRAM (RDRAM), static RAM(SRAM), etc.), ROM, or Flash memory. The storage media may be physicallyincluded within the computer to which the storage media providesinstructions/data. Alternatively, the storage media may be connected tothe computer. For example, the storage media may be connected to thecomputer over a network or wireless link, such as network attachedstorage. The storage media may be connected through a peripheralinterface such as the Universal Serial Bus (USB). Generally, thecomputer accessible storage medium 200 may store data in anon-transitory manner, where non-transitory in this context may refer tonot transmitting the instructions/data on a signal. For example,non-transitory storage may be volatile (and may lose the storedinstructions/data in response to a power down) or non-volatile.

The computer accessible storage medium 200 in FIG. 7 may store codeforming the core swap exception handler 202. The core swap exceptionhandler 202 may include instructions which, when executed by a processor32A-32 n, implements the operation described above for the core swapexception handler (for example, block 108 in FIG. 6 and the blocks ofFIG. 4). A carrier medium may include computer accessible storage mediaas well as transmission media such as wired or wireless transmission.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the processor 32A ingreater detail. In the illustrated embodiment, the PCore 40 and ECore 42are shown including instances of a context state machine 90 (i.e. 90Aand 90B in FIG. 8). The implementations of the state machine 90 in thecores 40 and 42 may differ, but they may logically operate in a similarfashion. Generally, the state machine 90 in the active core may causeregister state to be output by the active core to a context buffer 92 towhich the state machines 90 are coupled. The order of the registers inthe state may be fixed, so that the receiving state machine may simplyread the data and write it to the correct registers. In anotherimplementation, the order may be arbitrary and each register may beassigned an identifier which may be written, with the register contents,to the context buffer 92 and used by the receiving state machine towrite the correct register within the receiving core.

The state machine may be implemented in a variety of fashions: fixedfunction circuitry (e.g. a finite state machine), microcode executed bythe processor, in the processor power manager 36 (e.g. transmittingcommands to the cores to transfer various registers), etc. Additionally,the state machine 90 in the active processor may flush the data cache(s)to the L2 cache 34, as mentioned above.

The context buffer 92 may be a first in, first out buffer (FIFO) tocapture context state from one core to another. The context buffer 92may provide elasticity, handle clock domain crossings, etc. In anembodiment, the context buffer 92 may be part of the processor powermanager 36 and thus is shown in dotted lines in FIG. 8. The statemachines 90 may also be implemented in the processor power manager 36 inanother embodiment. In such embodiments, the processor power manager 36may have access to the register state in the cores 40 and 42, or maycause instructions to be executed to perform the register reads/writesto perform the transmission of the register states.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of one embodiment of an SOC 10 coupled to amemory 12. As implied by the name, the components of the SOC 10 may beintegrated onto a single semiconductor substrate as an integratedcircuit “chip.” In some embodiments, the components may be implementedon two or more discrete chips in a system. However, the SOC 10 will beused as an example herein. In the illustrated embodiment, the componentsof the SOC 10 include a central processing unit (CPU) complex 14 (whichmay be implemented by the processor cluster 30 shown in FIG. 1),peripheral components 18A-18B (more briefly, “peripherals” 18), a memorycontroller 22, an SOC power manager (PMGR) 16, and a communicationfabric 27. The components 14, 16, 18A-18B, and 22 may all be coupled tothe communication fabric 27. The memory controller 22 may be coupled tothe memory 12 during use.

The memory controller 22 may generally include the circuitry forreceiving memory operations from the other components of the SOC 10 andfor accessing the memory 12 to complete the memory operations. Thememory controller 22 may be configured to access any type of memory 12.For example, the memory 12 may be static random access memory (SRAM),dynamic RAM (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) including doubledata rate (DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, etc.) DRAM. Low power/mobile versionsof the DDR DRAM may be supported (e.g. LPDDR, mDDR, etc.). The memorycontroller 22 may include queues for memory operations, for ordering(and potentially reordering) the operations and presenting theoperations to the memory 12. The memory controller 22 may furtherinclude data buffers to store write data awaiting write to memory andread data awaiting return to the source of the memory operation. In someembodiments, the memory controller 22 may include a memory cache tostore recently accessed memory data. In SOC implementations, forexample, the memory cache may reduce power consumption in the SOC byavoiding reaccess of data from the memory 12 if it is expected to beaccessed again soon. In some cases, the memory cache may also bereferred to as a system cache, as opposed to private caches such as theL2 cache or caches in the processors, which serve only certaincomponents. Additionally, in some embodiments, a system cache need notbe located within the memory controller 22.

The peripherals 18A-18B may be any set of additional hardwarefunctionality included in the SOC 10. For example, the peripherals18A-18B may include video peripherals such as an image signal processorconfigured to process image capture data from a camera or other imagesensor, display controllers configured to display video data on one ormore display devices, graphics processing units (GPUs), videoencoder/decoders, scalers, rotators, blenders, etc. The peripherals mayinclude audio peripherals such as microphones, speakers, interfaces tomicrophones and speakers, audio processors, digital signal processors,mixers, etc. The peripherals may include interface controllers forvarious interfaces external to the SOC 10 (e.g. the peripheral 18B)including interfaces such as Universal Serial Bus (USB), peripheralcomponent interconnect (PCI) including PCI Express (PCIe), serial andparallel ports, etc. The peripherals may include networking peripheralssuch as media access controllers (MACs). Any set of hardware may beincluded.

The communication fabric 27 may be any communication interconnect andprotocol for communicating among the components of the SOC 10. Thecommunication fabric 27 may be bus-based, including shared busconfigurations, cross bar configurations, and hierarchical buses withbridges. The communication fabric 27 may also be packet-based, and maybe hierarchical with bridges, cross bar, point-to-point, or otherinterconnects.

The SOC PMGR 16 may be configured to control the supply voltagemagnitudes requested from the PMU in the system. There may be multiplesupply voltages generated by the PMU for the SOC 10. For example, theV_(P) voltage may be generated for the processors 32A-32 n in the CPUcomplex 14, and a V_(SOC) voltage may be generated for other componentsin the SOC 10. In an embodiment, V_(SOC) may serve the memory controller22, the peripherals 18, the SOC PMGR 16, and the other components of theSOC 10 and power gating may be employed based on power domains. Theremay be multiple supply voltages for the rest of the SOC 10, in someembodiments. In some embodiments, there may also be a memory supplyvoltage for various memory arrays in the CPU complex 14 and/or the SOC10. The memory supply voltage may be used with the voltage supplied tothe logic circuitry (e.g. V_(P) or V_(SOC)), which may have a lowervoltage magnitude than that required to ensure robust memory operation.The SOC PMGR 16 may be under direct software control (e.g. software maydirectly request the power up and/or power down of components) and/ormay be configured to monitor the SOC 10 and determine when variouscomponents are to be powered up or powered down. For the CPU complex 14,the voltage requests for V_(P) may be provided to the SOC PMGR 16, whichmay communicate the requests to the PMU to effect the change in supplyvoltage magnitudes.

Generally, a component may be referred to as powered on or powered off.The component may be powered on if it is receiving supply voltage sothat it may operate as designed. If the component is powered off, thenit is not receiving the supply voltage and is not in operation. Thecomponent may also be referred to as powered up if it is powered on, andpowered down if it is powered off. Powering up a component may refer tosupplying the supply voltage to a component that is powered off, andpowering down the component may refer to terminating the supply of thesupply voltage to the component. Similarly, any subcomponent and/or theSOC 10 as a whole may be referred to as powered up/down, etc. Acomponent may be a predefined block of circuitry which provides aspecified function within the SOC 10 and which has a specific interfaceto the rest of the SOC 10. Thus, the peripherals 18A-18B, the CPUcomplex 14, the memory controller 22, and the SOC PMGR 16 may each beexamples of a component.

It is noted that the number of components of the SOC 10 (and the numberof subcomponents for those shown in FIG. 1, such as within the CPUcomplex 14) may vary from embodiment to embodiment. There may be more orfewer of each component/subcomponent than the number shown in FIG. 1.

Turning next to FIG. 10, a block diagram of one embodiment of a system150 is shown. In the illustrated embodiment, the system 150 includes atleast one instance of the SOC 10 coupled to one or more peripherals 154and the external memory 12. The PMU 156 is provided which supplies thesupply voltages to the SOC 10 as well as one or more supply voltages tothe memory 12 and/or the peripherals 154. In some embodiments, more thanone instance of the SOC 10 may be included (and more than one memory 12may be included as well).

The PMU 156 may generally include the circuitry to generate supplyvoltages and to provide those supply voltages to other components of thesystem such as the SOC 10, the memory 12, various off-chip peripheralcomponents 154 such as display devices, image sensors, user interfacedevices, etc. The PMU 156 may thus include programmable voltageregulators, logic to interface to the SOC 10 and more particularly theSOC PMGR 16 to receive voltage requests, etc.

The peripherals 154 may include any desired circuitry, depending on thetype of system 150. For example, in one embodiment, the system 150 maybe a mobile device (e.g. personal digital assistant (PDA), smart phone,etc.) and the peripherals 154 may include devices for various types ofwireless communication, such as wifi, Bluetooth, cellular, globalpositioning system, etc. The peripherals 154 may also include additionalstorage, including RAM storage, solid state storage, or disk storage.The peripherals 154 may include user interface devices such as a displayscreen, including touch display screens or multitouch display screens,keyboard or other input devices, microphones, speakers, etc. In otherembodiments, the system 150 may be any type of computing system (e.g.desktop personal computer, laptop, workstation, net top etc.).

The external memory 12 may include any type of memory. For example, theexternal memory 12 may be SRAM, dynamic RAM (DRAM) such as synchronousDRAM (SDRAM), double data rate (DDR, DDR2, DDR3, etc.) SDRAM, RAMBUSDRAM, low power versions of the DDR DRAM (e.g. LPDDR, mDDR, etc.), etc.The external memory 12 may include one or more memory modules to whichthe memory devices are mounted, such as single inline memory modules(SIMMs), dual inline memory modules (DIMM5), etc. Alternatively, theexternal memory 12 may include one or more memory devices that aremounted on the SOC 10 in a chip-on-chip or package-on-packageimplementation.

Numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to thoseskilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It isintended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all suchvariations and modifications.

What is claimed is:
 1. A processor apparatus comprising: a plurality ofprocessor cores, wherein: the processor cores implement at least aportion of an instruction set architecture employed by the processorapparatus; at least a first feature of the instruction set architectureis not implemented in a first processor core of the plurality ofprocessor cores; the first feature is implemented in a second processorcore of the plurality of processor cores; and at most one of theplurality of processor cores is active at a given point in time; and aprocessor power manager coupled to the plurality of processor cores,wherein the processor power manager is configured to: detect that codebeing executed in the processor apparatus uses the first feature of theinstruction set architecture; and activate the second processor core anddeactivate the first processor core responsive to detecting that thecode uses the first feature.
 2. The processor apparatus as recited inclaim 1, wherein: the processor power manager is programmable with aplurality of processor states, wherein each of the plurality ofprocessor states maps to one of the plurality of processor cores; theprocessor power manager is configured to cause a transfer of a processorcontext from the second processor core to the first processor core towhich a requested processor state is mapped in response to the processorapparatus being programmed from a current processor state to therequested processor state; and the processor power manager is configuredto prevent the transfer and to continue with the second processor coreactive responsive to the code being executed by the apparatus using thefirst feature.
 3. The processor apparatus as recited in claim 1,wherein: the first processor core is configured to detect the use of thefirst feature during execution of the code and to signal an exception inresponse to detecting the use; and the processor power manager isconfigured to activate the second processor core and deactivate thefirst processor core responsive to the exception.
 4. The processorapparatus as recited in claim 3, wherein the processor power manager isconfigured to cause a transfer of a processor context from the firstprocessor core to the second processor core responsive to the exception.5. The processor apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein the processorpower manager comprises a non-transitory computer accessible storagemedium storing a plurality of instructions executable by the processorapparatus.
 6. The processor apparatus as recited in claim 3, wherein:the first processor core is configured to detect that a second featureof the instruction set architecture is not implemented by any core ofthe plurality of cores; and the first processor core is configured tosignal a different exception in response to detecting use of the secondfeature.
 7. The processor apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein theprocessor power manager is configured to: power on the second processorcore; and power down the first processor core responsive to transferringthe processor context to the second processor core.
 8. The processorapparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the first feature comprises avector instruction set.
 9. The processor apparatus as recited in claim 1wherein the first feature comprises a predicated vector instruction set.10. The processor apparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein theinstruction set architecture specifies a plurality of operand sizes fora first operand type, and the first feature comprises a first operandsize of the plurality of operand sizes.
 11. The processor apparatus asrecited in claim 10 wherein a largest operand size of the plurality ofoperand sizes is an only operand size implemented by the first processorcore.
 12. A processor apparatus employing an instruction setarchitecture, the processor apparatus comprising: a plurality ofprocessor cores, wherein: a first processor core of the plurality ofprocessor cores implements a subset of the instruction set architecture;a second processor core of the plurality of processor cores implementsan entirety of the instruction set architecture; and at most one of theplurality of processor cores is active at a given point in time; and aprocessor power manager coupled to the plurality of processor cores,wherein the processor power manager is configured to activate the secondprocessor core and deactivate the first processor core responsive tocode that includes a feature outside of the subset.
 13. The processorapparatus as recited in claim 12 wherein the first processor core isconfigured to detect the feature during execution of the code andindicate the detection to the processor power manager.
 14. The processorapparatus as recited in claim 13 wherein the indication is an exception.15. The processor apparatus as recited in claim 12 wherein the processorpower manager is configured to cause a processor context transfer fromthe first processor to the second processor core to activate the secondprocessor core and deactivate the first processor core.
 16. Theprocessor apparatus as recited in claim 15 wherein the processor powermanager is configured to cause a power on of the second processor coreprior to the processor context transfer; and cause a power off of thefirst processor core responsive to completing the processor contexttransfer.
 17. A method comprising: determining that first code that iscoded to an instruction set architecture includes a feature that is notimplemented on a first processor core of a plurality of processor coresforming a processor, wherein the feature is implemented on a secondprocessor core of the plurality of cores; transferring a processorcontext from the first processor core to the second processor coreresponsive to the determining; and executing the first code on thesecond processor core.
 18. The method as recited in claim 17 furthercomprising: powering on the second processor core responsive to thedetermining; and powering off the first processor core subsequent to thetransferring.
 19. The method as recited in claim 17 further comprising:operating the first processor core responsive to a first operatingpoint; detecting a change to a second operating point of the firstprocessor, wherein the second operating point is mapped to the secondprocessor core; and transferring the processor context to the secondprocessor core responding to the detecting.
 20. The method as recited inclaim 17 wherein the second processor core is a higher performanceprocessor core than the first processor core and wherein the secondprocessor core implements an entirety of the instruction setarchitecture.